Mexican boy (4) source of flu, says community
Related Articles
A four-year-old Mexican boy, Edgar Hernandez, could be at the centre of a swine flu outbreak.
Edgar, from La Gloria in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, was diagnosed with swine flu earlier this month.
He survived, but residents of the town believe the area is ground zero for the swine flu epidemic.
As far back as late March, about one-sixth of the 3,000-strong community began suffering from severe respiratory infections that they blame on a farm that lies upwind five miles to the north, in the town of Xaltepec.
But Mexican officials say they have not determined the origin of the country's swine flu outbreak.
Jose Luis Martinez, a 34-year-old resident of La Gloria, said he knew the minute he heard about the outbreak on the news.
"When we saw it on the television, we said to ourselves, 'this is what we had",' he said. "It all came from here."
Local health officials and the federal health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, downplayed the claims, noting that of 30 mucous samples taken from victims of respiratory diseases there, only one -- that of 4-year-old Edgar Hernandez -- came back positive. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
